im going to play it safe with First direct fixed @ 6.19

whu

I only know about the FD offset mortgage - allows you to offset savings against the mortgage payments /overpay any amount rather than the more usual 10% per year either in lump sums or monthly standing order/borrow back

lisyloo

what is different about a FD mortgage please?

It's an offset mortgage (even the fixed ones).
You can offset or overpay as much as you want.
The only restriction is that you need to keep the legal charge on the property for the term (but it can be £0).

First Direct are pretty modern in the way they do things
e.g. they texted me to tell me my mortgage was approved.

whu

yes - they texted me and sent me a secure message and then confirmed by letter 3 days later

mrsm

If its security you're after then I think its a great move.
We took their 10 year fix earlier in the year at 5.15%. Its working really well for us. We don't have any savings but are still saving about £5 a month just from offsetting our income in the current account (all the DD's come out at the end f the month and we do all our spending on credit card before paying it off at the end of the month)

I can't fault FD, their rates are good and service fab
Good Luck

Conrad

Can you offset your current account balance as per the One Account? (Brokers cant deal with FD hence my asking).

I want a full offsett mortgage when mine comes up for renewal next April. Only offsetting savings wont be of much use.

straddie

Conrad wrote: »

Can you offset your current account balance as per the One Account? (Brokers cant deal with FD hence my asking).

Yep.

what is different about a FD mortgage please?

It's actually an interest only mortgage; your repayments are then set to whatever you want them to be, allowing you to underpay, overpay or make a regular repayment. You can change these repayments whenever you want and borrow any of it back as well. Very flexible!

If you want to make sure you pay the mortgage off in the term, you can ask them to set it up at the beginning so that your repayments include enough capital to achieve this (ie making it effectively a repayment mortgage). You can still change this later on if you want to.

lisyloo

Can you offset your current account balance as per the One Account?

Yes it's called the 1st account and is like a normal current account (check book, debit card etc.)

You can also offset the "everyday savings account" (comes with a card for withdrawals) and the normal "savings account" which is managed by phone or online.

You cannot offset ISAs with first Direct (if that's important then you can with the Woolwich).

whu

yes can offset the current account aswell as the savings account

rachelandgromit

I got last week, the Principality 10 year fix at 5.99% £999 fee and £300 valuation with free legals. This has now gone up to about 6.19%ish or thereabouts.

Like you, I couldn't be bothered to change again in 5 years and needed the secuirty. Abbey, who I am with, won't tell me what deal they can offer me until 90 days before (3rd August) my mortgage with them ends as it doens't finish until 3rd November so I took a chance that they wouldn't be able to come in anywhere near this rate given that interest rates may rise before then and the advisor in Abbey said as an existing customer the only perk I would receive over newbuyers is a reduced (not free) fee! S*D THAT!

I think more and more people will fix for 10 years, but hey, thats only my opinion.

justme111

lisyloo wrote: »

You cannot offset ISAs with first Direct (if that's important then you can with the Woolwich).

Wau that's really important info, hope they will not change it by the time I would be asking for a mortgage